The lake stays cool and fresh in the summer, doesn’t have algae or sulfur stink and is somewhat sheltered from the wind by the depression in which it sits.

Brush Lake has been a gathering spot for Montanans for more than a hundred years. During Prohibition, booze from Canada kept the Brush Lake Summer Resort hopping, along with a lively dance hall. When “red state” meant something else all together, the local Communists held a major, national convention there.

Along the south shore where the dance hall stood, land remains in private hands. After the Roaring Twenties, church and scout groups used the lake, though it fell out of popularity in the years before becoming a state park.

Though no person was at Brush Lake on a recent Sunday morning, it teemed with bird life. Fish, however, don’t take in the mineral-rich, low-oxygen waters similar to a hot springs.

Spruce from the forest that long ago surrounded the lake has been detected at its bottom under thousands of years of layers.

Several people have drowned in the lake, and there may be a sunken boat there, too.

Woody Baxter, with Fish, Wildlife and Parks in Glasgow, came to the Region 6 to found a state parks program there and to establish a northeastern Montana state park.

Region 6 takes in management areas from west of Havre to the North Dakota border (more than 350 miles east to west) and from the Canadian border to south of Circle (more than 115 miles north to south).

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A citizen search committee brainstormed 26 potential sites, visited 13 and presented four to officials, who backed Brush Lake as the first.

“It was wonderful” to finally get a park, Baxter said. “It was something the folks in northeast Montana deserve. We had 49 parks before Brush Lake and nothing in this whole area.”

Priorities shifted in the last four years, so Brush Lake State Park is now under the auspices of the parks program in Region 7, headquartered in Miles City, and shares a manager with Hell Creek State Park north of Jordan, more than 200 miles away.

Phase II of the park’s development calls for a campground expansion and the construction of a pavilion.

The park has two busy seasons, with temperatures accommodating picnickers, boaters and swimmers in force around Independence Day, and a second season centering around hunting season. Bird hunters camp at Brush Lake while seeking prey around FWP block management areas and the nearby Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

The well-developed campground has a dozen spots, with one handicap spot. Summer reservations may be made at montanastateparks.reserveamerica.com.

Closer to the water, a day-use area includes a boat ramp, dock and picnic area.